Pastor Cooley Sermon

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the apostle

Paul said, "'But we did not yield in subjection to them "'for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel "'would remain with you.'"

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her king.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Doesn't say that God believes for you, because he doesn't.

Well, how does one perceive or see or look upon Jesus? It's not physical sight, right?

We already have seen that. These people had seen Jesus. They had perceived him.

They had looked upon him. They'd even seen what he could do, but they did not believe. This is a spiritual seeing.

This is having your eyes unveiled, having the scales fall off from your eyes.

It is to be enabled by the Holy Spirit to finally perceive and to understand who he is. You see

Jesus, if you love him, not as some king to be mooched from or some wise teacher or philosopher, not a good moral example.

You see him for who he is, eternal God, come to earth, veiled in flesh, the one, the only one who never sinned, who fully obeyed, who died in your place and was raised on the third day.

If you see Jesus in that way, you're saved, because that cannot happen by natural sight.

It's not natural at all, but supernatural. An act of God to deliver you from your spiritual blindness, your inability to perceive spiritual things.

Some will say that the ability of, or this shows the ability of every person to believe.

After all, it says, you know, whoever, says everyone who looks on the sun.

So anyone who does that, anyone who believes, but that's not the case. Again, these are participles that show a constant state of being, not an ability necessarily.

And besides that, we'd also know this, that if he was teaching the ability of every single man, woman and child to come to Christ on their own volition, he'd be contradicting himself just a few verses down the road when, and we're gonna see that in verse 44.

But again, see the promise of the savior to those who believe. Look at verse 40 again, and I will raise him up on the last day.

No mistake about it. This is the promise of salvation, of eternity in heaven, of eternal life.

There's a chain of unbreakable truth in the words of Jesus. The father chooses, the son preserves, and those chosen believe unto eternal life.

But it's not everyone. As a psalmist wrote, the wicked are not so in Psalm 1 .1.

There is no such blessing. There is no such joy for the unbeliever. Look at the response of the unbelieving

Jews. So the Jews grumbled about him because he said, I'm the bread that came down from heaven.

They said, is this, is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?

How does he now say, I have come down from heaven? Again, think about the context here.

This is one day after he's performed all these miracles, or this miracle, this wonder, where they want to proclaim him king.

And now they're like, wait a second. He says he's better than Moses. He says he's the bread from heaven.

He says he's the key to eternal life. And now what do they do? They deprecate him.

They put him down by saying what? This is Jesus. We've known him since he was knee high to a grasshopper.

And now he's going to come up and say these things? And they had challenged him.

And they challenged him back in verse 30 to prove that he was better than Moses. He said, so they said to him, then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?

What work do you perform? Our fathers ate the man in the wilderness as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Jesus deflated that. He said, you know, he didn't say I'm not going to do any science, but he didn't do any science. This isn't like deity on demand.

You don't get to decide when God is going to do a miracle. But he told them that, you know what, that, that manna out there, you think it was wonderful because Moses fed a nation for 40 years.

And you think that's better than what I did. The truth is that manna kept them physically alive.

Spiritually, it had no value whatsoever. What I am offering you is infinitely more value because I'm of more value because I'm offering you eternal life.

Now, if you ever want evidence of the sinfulness of sin or the inability of sinful men to believe, this passage is it.

After Jesus taught on the sovereignty of God and salvation, the surety of salvation, their response was not what we would want to see from believers or from anyone, really.

We'd want them to say, hallelujah, that's right, amen. You know, bust out in the hallelujah chorus.

That's not what they do. Again, look at the text. So the

Jews grumbled about him. Said, well, you know, he says, I'm the bread come down from heaven.

And they started talking about him just being a regular guy. Who's this guy? This man makes bold claims, but come on, we've known him his whole life.

How dare he claim to be greater than Moses to offer something better than the man of Moses called down from heaven.

And it really is remarkable, right? Hundreds of years afterwards. I mean, if we think about how Israel responded to Moses, right, when they're trapped up against the

Red Sea and they've got the mountain and here comes the Egyptian army and they're stuck and they're done for.

And they say, what, you just brought us out of here to die? And then the Red Sea opens up. They walk through, they get to the other side and they're happy for about a couple of minutes before they start worshiping a calf and then grumbling about how they're gonna die because they have nothing to eat.

And it's just one grumble after another. But in retrospect now, hundreds of years later, Moses was awesome, never did anything wrong, and the manna, by the way, was the best thing ever, even though they eventually grumbled about that too, right?

But for these folks, manna was the best. The manna was the best.

They understood this much. They knew Jesus was claiming to be greater other than Moses and greater and other than them.

He said he came down from heaven. They didn't like that. They're grumbling. And really the picture here is of a bunch of unbelievers pooling their ignorance and trying to discern exactly what it is that Jesus is saying.

What happens when unbelievers get together and start pooling their ignorance? They come up with all kinds of ideas.

Maybe God is a woman. Maybe God is this. Maybe God is that. Certainly God loves everybody too much to condemn anyone to hell.

If there was a God, he would never allow anything evil to happen. This is what happens for the unbelieving mind.

It could be summarized this way. This is how they were perceiving themselves. Who does he think he is? He's no one special.

Certainly not better than Moses. Now he's grown up.

He thinks he's sophisticated. He thinks he's so smart. He's making these extravagant claims.

Does he actually expect us to believe him? The answer is no. They don't believe him.

Divine truth claim number one, the father sovereignly chooses those who will be saved. Number two, the father sovereignly entrusts the son with those who will be saved.

Number three, those not sovereignly chosen refuse to believe and they had plenty of evidence.

Divine truth claim number four, the father sovereignly changes wills.

The father sovereignly changes wills. As a response to their grumbling, the

Lord merely commands them to stop. Just stop it. Look at verse 43, Jesus answered them.

Do not grumble among yourselves. He didn't say, you know, what's up with all this grumbling? He said, stop it.

Gave them a command. Why? Because what he was saying was true and the truth needs proclamation.

They were a group of unbelievers unable to discern spiritual things and he was not going to put up with it.

He was going to tell them the truth no matter what they wanted to hear. God in the flesh stood before them and they rejected him, but Jesus doesn't even blink.

Look at verse 44. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

Now this is the flip side of the coin from verse 37. In verse 37 it said, all that the father gives me will come to me and here no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

Gives, draws, flip sides of the same coin. They're both true.

All will come whom the father draws and none are able unless he draws them.

All will come who are given, but none are able unless they are given. Someone will say, well, that's not fair.

Those who are not chosen or those who are not drawn don't have a chance.

Let me just put it bluntly. Apart from the sovereign work of God, no one has a chance.

And the plan of God is not subject to chance. It's not like a 47 % probability that when certain people hear the gospel, they will believe.

It is a 100 % chance, which is not chance. It's a certainty.

All who the father gives me, all that the father gives me will come to me and no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

This is a plan that is not subject to chance or change or the whims of man.

One Christian author said of this verse that it can't mean what it says because there are literally hundreds of verses that show we make choices.

Because see what he says? No one can come to me. So no one has, well, I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.

No one has the ability to do that. No one can, but we make choices. So certainly people can come.

That's what I referred to earlier. That's a straw man. Jesus does not say that unsaved man makes no choices.

He doesn't say that. He says there's one choice they cannot make. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him.

That's the condition. And unsurprisingly that Greek word can right there in your

Bible in verse 44 means what? To have the ability. It's same as the

English. Means to have the power to do something. It is from the Greek verb dunamai, which means to have the power.

It's the same word we get dynamite from. Let me put it to you this way. Apart from a sovereign working of the grace of God, unbelievers are like automobiles without gasoline.

They have a lot of potential. They can really go fast. They can take you places, but they have no gasoline.

They can't go anywhere. You have the potential, but without the drawing power of God, you're not going to come.

You can't. It's impossible. Now as for the drawing power of God, I'm going to give you the dictionary definition of the

Greek verb. Listen, this is the raw literal meaning. To move an object from one area or another in a pulling motion with the implication that the object being moved is listen, incapable of propelling itself, or in the case of a person unwilling to do so voluntarily.

In either case, with the implication of exertion on the part of the mover. There is a mover in salvation.

That mover is the father. It says, unless he draws, unless he pulls, unless he, in other places, the same verb would be defined this way as to drag.

The apostles were dragged out of a specific place in Acts. That's the verb.

And that's us before God works. Incapable and unwilling.

It takes a mighty work of God to make us willing. Think about what the Bible says about it. Talks about removing a heart of stone and giving a heart of flesh.

Jesus himself in John three said that what? To Nicodemus, you must be born again.

We know from Acts that the Lord opened Lydia's heart so that she would believe. We know that Paul describes us in Ephesians chapter two as dead in our sins and trespasses, and then says, but God made us alive.

Charles Spurgeon said this, he said, we declare upon scriptural authority that the human will is so desperately set on mischief, so depraved, and so inclined to everything that is evil, and so disinclined to everything that is good, that without the powerful, supernatural, irresistible influence of the

Holy Spirit, no human will ever be constrained towards Christ. Over and over again, scripture describes salvation as something accomplished for us, not by us.

Every person, well, let me say it another way, and you're gonna think

I'm trying to be tricky here. Every person who is willing will believe. And you say, well, that's contrary to everything you just said.

Well, no, every willing person will believe, and every willing person will be saved.

Go back to that word draw. The Father never fails to drag, draw, propel someone to believe in Christ.

We are creatures, he is the creator. He bids us come, we don't say no. He takes us as clay and molds us into clay, and fashions us as he will.

And the notion of somebody refusing the grace of God is absurd.

God draws, but some man somewhere who is given by the Father to the

Son resists that, rejects it. Well, then Jesus is wrong, because he said what?

That all that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will raise them up, and the last day

I will take them to heaven. Let me put it another way. You ever wrestle a small child?

I like to, because it's fun, I always win. You know, maybe I should try this with January, just get her up, you know, and we'll just go at it.

Now, what do we do with little kids? We make them feel good, and we do this, you know, and we let them win. But the idea of God setting his affection, working, drawing someone, and failing to accomplish what

Jesus says he will accomplish is more absurd than thinking that some four -year -old is gonna beat me in an arm wrestling contest.

It's not going to happen. If it could happen,

Jesus would be wrong. Again, I ask, do you believe

Jesus? One man wrote of this passage.

None of these verses says that God's grace will be irresistible on the unwilling.

I say, well, that's true. And I say, that's another straw man. Jesus didn't say that.

Let's look again at the text. All the father draws, drills, all the father draws will come, has no indication of their choice or their will or anything else.

In fact, the verb makes it plain that an immobile object upon which force is exercised will be moved.

And I would suggest to you that it's not that God drags the unwilling, but that he so inclines the will of the unwilling that they become willing.

We talked about Saul this morning in Sunday school and such a great picture, because not only does he not ask

Saul what his free will response is to the offer of the gospel. Not only does he tell him how much, or tell

Ananias that he's eventually going to have to suffer but the response of Saul then

Paul is this. He's blinded for three days. He doesn't drink or eat.

He prays and Ananias comes and restores his vision. What's the first thing he does? He hasn't had anything to eat or drink.

I'd probably go straight to the refrigerator. Saul says, first thing

I'm going to do is I'm going to be baptized. The church that I persecuted, now I want to be identified with.

The people that I hated, I want them to know that I love the same Lord they do. That's the grace of God.

That's the sovereign grace of God in action. Grace that merely wishes or wants or desires to draw but can't actually draw.

That's not what this passage teaches. Now some again might think, well then why doesn't

God just draw all men? Why aren't all men pulled? And again, it comes back to the potter and clay thing.

That's an impertinent question. It is the grace and mercy of God that brings him to act on any.

He owes us nothing. We are rebels. We are

God haters before grace converts us. We are enemies, the Bible says. Well, does he draw all but maybe only some choose to come?

Again, that's just wrong. Look at verse 44, second half of it. And I will raise him up on the last day, all that are drawn will come.

And I will raise him up on the last day and that is not again to hell, it is to heaven.

They will not perish. They're kept by Jesus until that last day.

Now, is this a hard teaching? Yes, it is hard. Why do

I say that? Because I have contextual evidence for it. In verse 65, in the same chapter, after he gets through with this whole discourse and he said, this is why

I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father. Verse 66, after this, many of his disciples, those who had been following him, not the inner circle, but those who had been following him, those who wanted to learn from him, turned back and listened and no longer walked with him.

They couldn't take it. It's not a question of whether this is difficult or easy to accept.

The question is, is it true? Was Jesus in error?

Heaven forbid. Now, what's the benefit of this? Think of the security of this passage.

Think of what it promises you. If you are given, if you are drawn by the

Father, you will come to faith and the Son will keep you, will hold you, will not let you go, and you will dwell for all of eternity in his presence.

That's what he's saying. Now, there's a long list of men, long line of faithful men who believe the teaching of this passage.

Some of them, I'll just list a few. Obviously, Spurgeon, Lloyd -Jones, R .C. Sproul, James Montgomery Boyce, Steve Lawson, B .B.

Warfield, Al Mueller, Mark Dever, George Whitfield, and the list goes on and on and on.

But I'm gonna tell you something. It doesn't matter what they believed. It doesn't matter that I believe this.

It's important that you believe it. Why? Because it's what Jesus said. People say, well,

I don't really like that. I don't know what to tell you. Do you believe

Jesus? Listen to what Spurgeon said, and this is how I hope we think.

The universal confession of all true believers is this. I know that unless Jesus Christ had sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, I would to this very hour have been wandering far from him, at a distance from him, and loving that distance well.

With common consent, all believers affirm the truth that men will not come to Christ till the

Father who hath sent Christ doth draw them. Do you believe in Jesus?

I hope so. Do you believe the words of Jesus? Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you for the words of our

Savior, even as we look at them and we think, this is hard to swallow, that you are so sovereign that we are unable, incapable of responding independently to you, to believing in Christ.

But that's what he said. All that you give to the

Son will come. All that you draw will come.

Father, there are many here who have been drawn, who have been pulled, who have had their wills transformed, and Father, we praise you for them.

Lord, if there are some who have not yet been visited by your power,

Father, we pray that this would even be the day of salvation for them. For any who struggle with this,

Lord, I pray that you would impel them, compel them to study, to see if the words of Jesus are true and right, and if they are not the sweetest comfort a believer can possibly have.

To know that our salvation doesn't rest on our own efforts, on our own imperfect, fallen, sinful will, but on the will of the perfect God, the perfect Creator, the perfect Savior, who died in our place, was raised on the third day, and leads us, holds us, guides us, and will keep us until that day.

It's in the name of Christ we pray. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.